Australian leader: Al-Qaida wants Obama  —  SYDNEY, Australia - Australia's conservative prime minister slammed Barack Obama (news, bio, voting record) on Sunday over his opposition to the Iraq war, a day after the first-term U.S. senator announced his intention to run for the White House in 2008.

Don't ruin economy over tiny temp rise  —  Our Thought For The Week comes from the Boston Globe's Ellen Goodman: "I would like to say we're at a point where global warming is impossible to deny.  Let's just say that global warming deniers are now on a par with Holocaust deniers …

Iran Sending Explosives to Extremist Groups in Iraq, Officials Say  —  Iranian security forces, taking orders from the "highest levels" of the Iranian government, are funneling sophisticated explosives to extremist groups in Iraq, and the weapons have grown increasingly deadly for U.S.-led troops …

At Libby's Defense Table, a Tough but Deft Lawyer  —  One of Theodore V. Wells Jr.'s past clients slipped quietly into the courtroom recently to watch a day in the perjury trial of I. Lewis Libby Jr. Mike Espy, agriculture secretary under President Bill Clinton, sat watching Mr. Wells …

Rumors of War  —  Jalal Sharafi was carrying a videogame, a gift for his daughter, when he found himself surrounded.  On that chilly Sunday morning, the second secretary at the Iranian Embassy in Baghdad had driven himself to the commercial district of Arasat Hindi to checkout the site for a new Iranian bank.

Kristol: Obama Is 'The Opposite Of Lincoln,' Would Have Been Pro-Slavery  —  Yesterday, Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) announced his candidacy for president in Springfield, IL, where Abraham Lincoln delivered his famous "House Divided" address.  In his speech, Obama reiterated his call to redeploy U.S. forces out of Iraq by March 2008.

McCain Taps Cash He Sought To Limit  —  Just about a year and a half ago, Sen. John McCain went to court to try to curtail the influence of a group to which A. Jerrold Perenchio gave $9 million, saying it was trying to "evade and violate" new campaign laws with voter ads ahead of the midterm elections.

Victory Is Not an Option  —  The Mission Can't Be Accomplished — It's Time for a New Strategy  —  The new National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq starkly delineates the gulf that separates President Bush's illusions from the realities of the war.  Victory, as the president sees it …

Is it an accident that Genuine John Edwards has chosen this moment to emerge?  —  They want you to be so cautious it makes it hard to say anything'  —  In the fall of 2005, John Edwards sat down with a pad and pen and scrawled out three simple words: "I was wrong."

U.S. Keeps Pressure on Iran But Decreases Saber Rattling  —  Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates insisted again Friday that, despite persistent reports to the contrary circulating in Washington and around the world, the United States is not planning military action against Iran.

Cheney's To-Do Lists, Then and Now  —  RETURNING to the White House after the Memorial Day weekend in 1975, the young aide Dick Cheney found himself handling a First Amendment showdown.  The New York Times had published an article by Seymour M. Hersh about an espionage program …

A Blog's Blast Damage  —  The fact that The Post and washingtonpost.com are interlocking yet separate is lost on most readers, who do not care that the two are miles apart physically and under different management.  —  A great example is the recent firestorm over a column that never appeared in The Post …

New wage boost puts squeeze on teenage workers across Arizona  —  Employers are cutting back hours, laying off young staffers  —  Oh, for the days when Arizona's high school students could roll pizza dough, sweep up sticky floors in theaters or scoop ice cream without worrying about ballot initiatives affecting their earning power.